Biological warfare is the deliberate spreading of
disease amongst humans, animals, and plants. Biological weapons
introduce bacterial or viral agents into an environment for hostile
purposes. Such agents can be very effective at killing plants, livestock,
pets, and humans. There are a huge variety of bacteria and viruses
which can be genetically modified to withstand antibiotics, for
use as biological weapons. Other types of commonly used weapons
agents include, rickettsiae, toxins, and fungi.

When compared to the cost of a nuclear and chemical weapon programs,
biological weapons are extremely cheap. It is estimated that 1 gram
of toxin could kill 10 million people. Any nation with a reasonably
advanced pharmaceutical and medical industry has the capability
of mass producing biological weapons. Moreover, nearly all biological
agents have legitimate uses for human needs. These facts reveal
the difficulties in determining which countries might have programs.
Anything from a piece of fruit to a ballistic missile could be used
to deliver a biological weapon to a target.

The use of biological and chemical weapons has been condemned by
international declarations and treaties, notably by the 1907
Hague Convention (IV) respecting the laws and customs of war
on land. Efforts to strengthen this prohibition resulted in the
conclusion of the 1925
Geneva Protocol which banned the use of asphyxiating, poisonous
or other gases, usually referred to as chemical weapons, as well
as the use of bacteriological methods of warfare. The latter are
now understood to include not only bacteria, but also other biological
agents, such as viruses or rickettsiae which were unknown at the
time the Geneva Protocol was signed. (On 1 January 1997, 132 States
were party to this Protocol.) However, the Geneva Protocol did not
prohibit the development, production and stockpiling of chemical
and biological weapons. Attempts to achieve a complete ban were
made in the 1930s in the framework of the League of Nations, but
with no success.

The prohibition of chemical and biological weapons appeared on
the agenda of the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament in Geneva
(now called the Conference
on Disarmament) in 1968. One year later, the United Nations
published an influential report on the problems of chemical and
biological warfare, and the question received special attention
at the UN General Assembly. The UN report concluded that certain
chemical and biological weapons cannot be confined in their effects
in space and time and might have grave and irreversible consequences
for man and nature. This would apply to both the attacking and the
attacked nations. Due to interest in the topic in the end of the
1960s, the Biological
Weapons Convention (BWC) was signed in 1972 and entered into
force in 1975.

The BWC was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning an
entire category of weapons of mass destruction. The Convention,
about four pages long, bans the development, production stockpiling,
or acquisition of biological agents or toxins of any type or quantity
that do not have protective, medical, or other peaceful purposes,
or any weapons or means of delivery for such agents or toxins. Under
the treaty, all such material is to be destroyed within nine months
of the treaty's entry into force. However, unlike the Chemical Weapons
Convention the BWC lacks any provision for verification, like accounting
of research facilities or inspections.

Recognizing this dangerous flaw BWC member states began negotiations
in 1995 on a supplementary agreement which would contain verification
provisions. After seven years this effort resulted in a draft protocol.
In July 2001 the United States rejected the draft protocol and announced
it would not participate in the negotiations. As a result, the other
member states declined to proceed with further negotiation. At the
November 2001 Review
Conference of the BWC, the US introduced a proposal to formally
terminate negotiations of the protocol. The member states eventually
decided to defer the matter until the next Review Conference, scheduled
to convene in 2006.